Tech News July 2008

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OCZ NIA Brain-Computer Interface
Hot Hardware :: Tuesday, July 29, 2008OCZ Technology has laid claim to being the first company to bring a “brain-computer” interface to the retail market and they have aimed it squarely at the gamer. The device is called the NIA, which is an acronym that stands for Neural Impulse Actuator, and instead of buttons, sticks, gyroscopes or motion sensors, it reads the body’s natural biosignals and translates them into commands that can be used to control PC games.

Hackers on Planet Earth 2008: ‘The Last HOPE’
Techgage :: Monday, July 28, 2008
The seventh HOPE conference was held this past weekend in NYC and I was there to take in the numerous talks. Such subjects covered were lock picking, Wikipedia’s evils, YouTube, FOIA, hardware hacking and a lot more. Special talks were also given by Steven Rambam, Steven Levy, Adam Savage and Jello Biafra.

A Small Example Of What Lightning Can Do
PC Mech :: Saturday, July 26, 2008
“I can guarantee that most long-time computer users that read PCMech have a lightning story or two (or more). If you’ve used computers long enough you will inevitably get something zapped. For example, years ago dial-up modems would commonly get zapped – thru the phone cable. Enough of a charge would travel across the wire after a strike and the modem was dead. No snap; no smoke; just dead.”

Sumo Lounge SumoSac Sultan – Khaki
APH Networks :: Saturday, July 26, 2008
You might think that, here at APH Networks, we’re a bunch of geeks who own a dozen computers at home. Maybe a TV and a microwave, and that’s about it. I don’t know about other members of the APH Networks team (Sorry guys hehe), but here’s the deal though: While I do have almost a dozen computers around here, and I do own a microwave and an HDTV, I have something more than that. After all, despite popular belief, we do have a life. Okay, jokes aside, my point is that we aren’t all over tech and tech related stuff all the time. Once in a while, we do have non-computer related products here in our labs. It’s already been two years since we looked at the Sumo Lounge Omni Beanbag Chair. Just a few months ago, we ‘reviewed’ the TWM Performance Complete Short Shifter Kit just for fun. Automotive accessories? Heck, yes. Last month, Andrew from Sumo Lounge got in touch with me again and asked if I wanted to take a look at their latest product, the Sumo Lounge SumoSac. Obviously, I said “yes”, not only to Andrew, but who could say “no” to such a unique piece of furniture? I won’t waste any more of your time, let’s get to the point!

Gamepyre’s July Giveaway Featuring Tagan Products
Gamepyre :: Friday, July 25, 2008
Okay so its time to have another free GiveAway at Gamepyre.com and this month our sponsor is Tagan. Tagan is a cutting edge manufacturer of Power Supplies, Cases and HD Enclosures and have a very nice product line that features ESA support and well designed parts for the enthusiast market. This month we will be giving two nice cases away to a pair of lucky winners. All you need to do is enter at the link below and your in. Remember if you do not enter you cannot win. Good luck to everyone who enters!

MCE2.0 by Sleepstreamer
Bit-Tech Modding :: Friday, July 25, 2008
It’s been a little while, but crazy Mad Max Erlandsson (aka Sleepstreamer) is back on our front page again. This time, he’s taking things back to his Cold Fusion style as he brings us his take on a Media Center to be proud of.

Day 19: Using Internet Video To Build Awareness
PC Mechanic :: Friday, July 25, 2008
When you hear people say that internet video is really big right now, they&#8217;re right. Now that so many people have broadband Internet access, the common use of internet video has reachedmainstream and more and more people are starting to do it. And rightly so. You ever watched television for hours on end? Even if it isn&#8217;t particularly exciting, your eyes are kind of glued to it until something else distracts you. Or have you ever experienced seeing something that really moves you and really tugs on the heart strings. You have the imagery, probably coupled with some appropriate music, and you really FEEL it. Now, you would have to be on incredible writer to get that kind of reaction from the written word. There is something about seeing and hearing something that just draws in the human mind. People stick to it like glue. As a person working online, you really do need to take this into consideration. Even if your videos aren&#8217;t really emotional, videos often will communicate to your audience better than the written word. Not always, of course. If you look at your website, sit down and brainstorm potential uses for videos on the Internet. Also gather some equipment to help you create some videos. You can hire people to create videos for you. You can also make them yourself any number of ways. Always include your website URL in your video. When using sites like Youtube, you might want to try to make a viral video. A video that goes viral means that it spreads similar to a virus. One person &#8220;catches&#8221; it and passes it onto another. To get this effect, your video has to be truly interesting enough for a person to want to pass it onto their friends. It doesn&#8217;t take rocket science to determine what kinds of videos are most likely to go viral. Throw some humor into it, perhaps even with a hot woman in it, and it&#8217;ll go viral. Youtube viewers aren&#8217;t exactly a high-brow audience. TIP: Youtube, by default, will pick the exact half-way mark in your video to use as the thumbnail for that video. Many video publishers take advantage of that to put something visually interesting at the half way point. Then, when casual viewers are looking for something interesting to watch, the thumbnail may get their attention and draw them in.

ASUS M70Sa 17″ Multimedia Notebook
Techgage :: Friday, July 25, 2008
Does the idea of having Blu-ray capabilities on the go excite you? How about the idea of having 1,000GB worth of storage at the tip of your fingers? Or having a 1920×1200 resolution to keep the best possible work-flow? The ASUS M70Sa has those and a lot more, in a beefy 17″ package.

Hackers on Planet Earth 2008: ‘The Last HOPE’
Techgage :: Friday, July 25, 2008
The seventh HOPE conference was held this past weekend in NYC and I was there to take in the numerous talks. Such subjects covered were lock picking, Wikipedia’s evils, YouTube, FOIA, hardware hacking and a lot more. Special talks were also given by Steven Rambam, Steven Levy, Adam Savage and Jello Biafra.

ASUS P-Series AMD 690G Barebone PC
Techgage :: Friday, July 25, 2008
What if you could build a sub-$500 HTPC that was slim, fast, and capable, without the headache of picking bargain-barrel parts to accomplish your design goals? What if it had HDMI and 7.1 audio? With the help of their Pundit series, ASUS hopes to make barebones relevant again. Have they done it?

Everything You Need to Know About Dual Channel
Hardware Secrets :: Thursday, July 17, 2008
“The system RAM memory prevents the PC of achieving its maximum capable performance. This happens because the processor (CPU) is faster than RAM memory and usually it has to wait for the RAM memory to deliver data. During this wait time the CPU is idle, doing nothing (that’s not absolutely true, but it fits in our explanation). In a perfect computer, the RAM memory would be as fast as the CPU. Dual channel is a technique used to double the communication speed between thememory controller and the RAM memory, and thus improving the system performance. In this tutorial we will explain everything you need to know about dual channel technology: how it works, how to set it up, how to calculate transfer speeds and more.”

Foxconn Qbook Tech Report
Tech ARP :: Monday, July 14, 2008
Foxconn may be a relative newcomer to the retail business, but they are actively expanding in all areas. In addition to their motherboard and graphics card business, they are also delving into the Mobile Internet Devices (MID) market. Their first MID product is the new Foxconn Qbook. Will the Qbook bring something new to the table, or will it just be another Eee PC clone? Let’s find out.

Synthetic vs Real World Benchmarks
Techware Labs :: Monday, July 14, 2008
Do you find yourself often confused by reviews you find online? Are the results that you see much higher than those of your system or do they make any sense at all? Read our explanation of Real World vs Synthetic Benchmarks and find out how to read those reviews. We explain what you should be looking for and some of the tricks used by other sites to affect their results.

Team Fortress 2 Sentry Mod
Bit-Tech Modding :: Monday, July 14, 2008
The second part of the Team Fortress 2 case mod has landed – the sentry! Built to life-size proportions by Ton Khowdee, the TF2 Sentry Mod if both one of the most impressive and potentially deadly scratch-builds we’ve ever seen…

E3 Games Expo This Week in LA: What to Expect
PC World :: Monday, July 14, 2008
PC World’s gaming geeks debate which games and rumors are worth paying attention to. Post a comment to let us know what games interest you the most.

10 Things the 3G iPhone is Still Missing
PC World :: Monday, July 14, 2008
The new App Store has unleashed a slew of great new apps for the iPhone, but there are still a few standard features we wish Apple’s multimedia phone had. Here’s the short list.

Mac vs. Windows Laptops
PC World :: Monday, July 14, 2008
Do you still pay a premium for Apple’s laptops? Not always, as I found when comparing Windows and Apple models.

Inside the World’s Greatest Keyboard
PC World :: Monday, July 14, 2008
From the satisfying click of its keys to its no-nonsense layout and solid steel underpinnings, IBM’s 24-year-old Model M is the standard by which all other keyboards must be judged.

Palit GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Techgage :: Monday, July 14, 2008
With so many options on the market right now, what makes the GTX 280 a good choice for anyone? The fact that it is the highest-performing card out there sure helps, but it’s still not for everyone. To join this club, you better hope you have one massive resolution to push.

How to Download YouTube Videos
PC Mech :: Saturday, July 12, 2008
“Have you ever seen a video on YouTube or any other video sharing website that you wanted to download, but didn’t have the option to? Luckily, there are many ways to do this. In this article, we’ll explore several of your options, both web-based and software based.”

APPLE!!!!!
PC Mech :: Saturday, July 12, 2008
“I will just sum up the tech news for today and for tomorrow: APPLE!!!! And that pretty much sums it up.”

Top Deck Tech Station (Large).
Bjorn 3d :: Friday, July 11, 2008
If you’re a heavy home user, technician or reviewer that goes through a lot of hardware in your quest for that perfect component, or merely testing a CPU Coolers design then you’ll be interested in checking out the Top Deck Tech Station (Large) from HighSpeed PC.

The good folks over at HighSpeed PC were nice enough to send a Top Deck Tech Station for our review, hopefully ending the never ending chore of casing, uncasing and recasing we go through on a daily basis to keep our readers supplied with good solid information on a variety of products.

Is the Top Deck Testing Station going to give the over worked staff at Bjorn3D a little relief (or maybe Scott could give us a day off), or will we be forced back to the practice of using our last good mobo box and well worn anti static bag?(While we’re at it can we get something besides stale tap water and left over Bar Pretzels Scott?)

A-Data SDHC CLass 6 Eee PC Edition 8GB
APH Networks :: Friday, July 11, 2008
So here’s the deal, guys: You bought an Asus Eee PC, and you got all the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from your non-geek friends who’ve never seen such a thing you ever wanted. What now? One of the biggest ‘problems’ faced by majority of Eee PC users with regards to current generation Asus EeePCs comes down to storage capacity limitations of the subnotebook’s flash SSD — with configurations starting at 2GB and the higher end (Read: More expensive) models consisting of a 4GB Silicon Motion solid state disk, it’s not hard to imagine that you’re running low on disk space even after an nLited installation of Windows XP, plus a few programs to boot. I have an Asus Eee PC 4G; and with a somewhat slimmed down version of Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Office 2000 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with minimal features, Foxit Reader, Firefox, Windows Live Messenger, Wavelab Lite — just to name a few off my head — already used up 2.5GB. How about some multimedia files such as music, videos, and pictures? Good luck with that. Well, thankfully, Asus had considered that already with the Eee PC and incorporated a SD/SDHC card slot that’s can accommodate a card fully engaged into the unit with no edges left sticking out. It’s very convenient, and solves the storage problem fairly well. But what card are you going to use? A-DATA presents to you their solution. The A-DATA SDHC Class 6 Eee PC edition cards are designed for this very purpose. My Eee PC is white in color, and these white colored cards will fit the scheme just perfectly — along with a performance of excellent read and write performance, how will it step up to its task? Let’s jump right into our A-DATA SDHC Class 6 Eee PC Edition 8GB flash memory card review.